by Chris Ryan
Paulo watched the blue flames lick against the base of the pot. ‘I’ve lost my appetite.’
Amber took charge. ‘Come on, guys, we need to keep our strength up.’ She dug a measuring cup into the sack of rice and measured out five portions. With her diabetes she couldn’t afford to delay her meal times, no matter how unhungry she felt.
‘Typical Amber,’ said Hex. ‘Always thinking about her stomach.’ But even he sounded half-hearted.
Normally Amber would have skinned him for such a comment but her head was spinning. What if she had been born here, where people had to sell parts of their bodies to give their children a proper start in life? Someone with a condition such as diabetes would never be able to afford the drugs that she took for granted. Even if you managed to get insulin, without regular check-ups and tests – which cost money – you could go blind or lose a limb. Who knows how different her life might have been?
Alex took some vegetables from the store and silently sliced them for a curry. Meanwhile Hex was looking for more material on the web. Paulo and Li watched over his shoulder.
‘This is a website for people who want donor organs. Listen.’ Hex read from the screen. ‘I am a fifty-year-old male in dire need of a kidney. Please help me find one. I would like to live a little longer. I would pay all expenses for donor to travel to Jerusalem.’
‘Dios,’ said Paulo softly.
Hex flicked to a new page. ‘Here’s another. I lost my left kidney to cancer, then the right one. For four years I have been on dialysis. The doctors have put me on the transplant list but no-one has been suitable. I am six foot five and I have to do four hours dialysis every two days. Dialysis is very painful and I cannot work or participate in normal activities. I need a new kidney as soon as possible. Donor would have to travel to me as I am too ill to go on a plane.’ Hex looked up. ‘He’s in Texas.’
Alex cut up a tomato. ‘I had no idea there were so many people needing kidney transplants.’
Hex scrolled through more web pages. His face became grimmer and grimmer. ‘There are loads of them all over the world. Hearts, lungs, livers . . . So many sick people and not enough donor organs.’
Li looked out of the window at the house next door. ‘Mootama is very brave.’
Hex’s fingers were opening more pages. ‘She might have to be braver than she thinks. It’s a serious operation. She’ll lose a rib. It’ll take her longer to recover than it’ll take the person with the new kidney.’
Alex chopped hard and fast. ‘I hope that however much Mootama is getting, it’s worth it.’
5
FRIENDSHIP
First thing next morning, Alpha Force headed for the building site as the sun spread pink and orange through the sky. Clouds gathered above, but they were white and benign – for now. Could they get the roof on before the weather broke?
Radha was waiting for them beside the tarpaulined walls, along with the two boys who had helped yesterday plus another brother and sister. ‘Brought you some more help,’ she said proudly.
‘That’s brilliant,’ said Alex. ‘We get one assistant each.’ He looked at the kids. ‘Who wants to help me?’ Four hands shot up, eager to be picked.
‘Radha, where’s Bina?’ asked Li.
Radha’s mouth was a tight line. ‘She has to be mother now.’
The words tumbled out of Amber’s mouth before she could stop them. ‘You mean your mother’s gone already?’
Radha nodded and turned away quickly. She was upset.
Amber regretted her tactless question. She put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. ‘If there’s anything you or Bina need, we’ll help if we can.’
Every second counted if they were to beat the rains. They ripped off the tarpaulins and got to work. Radha’s friends provided a constant supply of breeze blocks and mortar, while Alpha Force did the building. In no time the walls were finished. Just as they were laying the last blocks, Pradesh the foreman – his toothache now treated – drove up with a delivery of the next materials: timbers for the roof. All hands raced to unload the truck and sort the pieces. This was the next phase, an important step.
Pradesh showed Alpha Force how to lay out the wood and position it to make four large triangle frames. Alex went over each frame, checking the many angles before hammering the pieces together, while Paulo and Hex improvised a pulley with spare wood and a rope. Amber, Li and Pradesh assembled a frame of scaffolding around the structure.
The sky darkened and a chilly wind blew over the workers on the site. All activity stopped. Faces turned up to the threatening sky. Should they rush to cover the walls?
Hex, lashing a rope around a block, glared up at the forbidding clouds. ‘Don’t you dare. I’ve got military satellites watching you and you shouldn’t be here.’
The dark clouds passed and the sky brightened. Work resumed. Everyone chattered and laughed at the near miss. Paulo grinned at Hex. ‘That was pretty cool.’
Hex nodded. ‘Those rain clouds know who’s boss,’ he said, with mock solemnity.
After a couple more hours of furious work, the younger children were flagging. But they didn’t want to leave. Li had a good idea – she organized them to keep all the workers supplied with fresh drinking water. Labouring in the hot sun was exhausting and their water bottles were soon depleted, so the two youngest children brought them refills from the standpipe in a large jug.
Once the triangle frames were ready, Paulo and Hex took up positions at their pulley, and told Alex, Amber and Li where to tie the ropes. Pradesh gave the command and Paulo and Hex hauled for all they were worth – and the first frame rose into the air. Paulo had designed the pulley so it could pick up the load and then swing it round, like a crane. Alex, Amber and Li guided the frame into position on top of the walls. As it settled, a great cheer went up.
The first part of the roof was on the school.
The next three went up easily. Next Paulo and Hex hoisted the crossbeams into place. Then it was up onto the scaffolding to secure them – and the roof was ready for tiling the next day. As the sun slipped down, it bathed the pale wood of the newly erected roof frame in golden light. They flung the tarpaulins up to cover it for the night. It had been a very good day’s work.
Ten happy, tired youngsters gathered on the veranda of Bina’s home and tucked into a supper of rice-flour pancakes with a potato curry and mustard seeds. ‘Eat up,’ said Naresh, nodding encouragement. ‘After all your hard work, you deserve it.’
Alpha Force didn’t need telling twice. Kerosene lamps cast a warm glow like a campfire. Bina moved through the guests, collecting empty plates. The kerosene light glowed through the filmy material of her sari and sparkled off the tiny mirrors sewn into the fabric. But her face was a picture of worry, furrowed with a frown that she couldn’t shake off. Alex remembered the exotic creature in turquoise he’d seen on TV. The burdens of adulthood had made her look so much older now.
‘How was your day, Bina?’ he said as he handed her his plate.
Bina nodded. ‘OK.’
Radha, sitting next to Paulo, piped up, ‘It’s her birthday.’
Amber gave a squeal of delight. ‘Bina, is it?’
Bina looked embarrassed at the attention. ‘Yes.’
Amber had a small plaited cord of red cotton around her wrist. She took it off, reached forwards and fastened it around Bina’s arm. ‘Friendship bracelet.’
Bina smiled shyly, and put down the stack of plates she had been collecting. She turned her wrist, admiring it. ‘Thank you.’
‘It looks nice on you,’ said Amber.
Alex watched the two girls and remembered what Amber was like when he first met her: the spoilt, rich, bitter Amber who never noticed anyone else, let alone their problems. He got out his phone, switched it to camera mode and recorded the moment for posterity.
Bina and Amber jumped at the flash.
‘You rat,’ said Amber. ‘I wasn’t ready for my close-up.’ She held out her hand. ‘Let me see.’
/> Alex passed over the phone. Amber inspected the picture, a critical expression on her face. ‘Hmm,’ she said. She didn’t look impressed.
Bina, though, peered at the picture in wonder, her eyes enormous.
Alex grinned. ‘I’ll e-mail it to you when you get computers in the school.’
At that moment a great wind blew up, licking dust up off the road in clouds. It snatched at the girls’ saris, whipping them up around their faces and making them laugh in surprise. All the party leaped to their feet, grabbing plates, lamps and cushions. Suddenly the gathering was in chaos.
‘Inside!’ called Naresh, and they didn’t need telling twice. Bina and her sisters dashed for the door. The skies opened and tipped out their rain with a heavy, metallic roar.
It was quite a crush in the little house. Hex looked out at the rain, already pouring as if through open taps from the veranda roof. ‘Great. We have to walk home in this.’
The ground looked like a dark lake, the surface frosted with the constant blast of raindrops. Less fastidious than Hex, Alex leaped out into it. ‘Last one in the water’s a sissy.’
Paulo grabbed Li’s arm and ran into the open, dragging her along. They nearly slipped over in the wet mud but recovered with a kind of skidding movement, like snowboarders doing a duet.
Amber let out a whoop of delight and leaped into the nearest puddle.
Alex looked back as they splashed across towards their own house. ‘Where’s Hex? The big girl’s blouse – is he afraid of getting his feet wet?’
‘I’ll get him,’ shouted Amber, waving the others on ahead. She ran back through the downpour to Naresh’s veranda and peeked inside.
Hex was sitting at the little palmtop screen with Bina, Radha and Sami clustered around him. Naresh sat to one side but was listening too as Hex spoke. Amber looked at the scene. Behind her, Li and Paulo were having a mud fight. Their shrieks of delight mingled with the pounding of the rain. Inside, Hex was reading to three frightened girls.
‘Look, here’s a site set up by people who’ve donated kidneys. It says: My mother gave a kidney so that my son could live a normal life. I owe everything to her. Here’s another: My doctor said I needed a transplant, but the waiting list was two years. Without hesitation, my brother said, can I donate one of mine? Thanks to him, I have never been on a machine and am fit and well today. He is too.’
Amber stepped into the open doorway. ‘Your mum will be all right,’ she said gently. ‘And she’s really helping somebody.’
6
ORGAN THIEVES
Up on the scaffold at first light, Hex, Li, Amber, Alex and Paulo could see how the rains had changed the landscape. The parched fields were turning green. The ground, previously dry as a bone, had turned to thick mud and was crisscrossed by the tracks of people, animals and vehicles. As the sun grew hotter, steam rose, obscuring the trees.
Stacks of roof tiles were laid out like packs of cards along the planks of the scaffolding. The first job of the morning had been to unload them from Pradesh’s lorry. The hot sun had already dried out the timber roof-frame, so they were able to get on with nailing the tiles into position. This was the last stage that they had to complete before the rains started in earnest. Radha and her friends were hard at work too, fetching supplies. Soon the air was full of the rhythmic sound of hammering.
Below them, the day unfolded. People went out into the fields and hitched cattle to ploughs. The hairdresser arrived in a smoky diesel van and set up his chair next to the standpipe. Soon he had a queue of customers. A large grey cow wandered loose along the street, snuffling the ground for food. A thin figure in rags the colour of the mud moved around the hairdresser, picking up rubbish swept in when the ground turned into a lake. The people in the queue chatted to each other but never acknowledged him. It was as though they couldn’t see him. Paulo had read about the untouchables – people in the lowest class of the caste system who did the dirty jobs such as cleaning and rubbish disposal and lived in their own part of the village. He was amazed that such otherwise friendly people could ignore the man.
Alex had a view over the other side of the village. For a few minutes now he had been watching someone in the distance, coming towards them. The figure walked slowly, as though it carried a great burden of troubles. Now he looked up again. Recognition hit. He sat bolt upright on top of the roof ridge.
‘That’s Mootama!’
Everyone looked round, then at the figure who laboured slowly through the slippery mud, her skirts splattered. She looked as though she had been walking for a long time.
Radha stood up on the scaffold and let out a piercing whistle across the fields. ‘Dad! Mum’s back!’ She gathered her skirts, clambered carefully down onto the sloppy ground and splashed towards the bedraggled figure.
Amber was sitting next to Hex. ‘She’s back already? I thought she’d be gone for days.’
‘She should be,’ said Hex. ‘And she would hardly be walking. Maybe something went wrong.’
They watched in silence as Radha greeted her mother, linked her arm through Mootama’s and led her towards the house.
Li needed a bigger hammer. She could see it on the ground, about four metres down. The ladder, though, was over at the other end of the building. Li decided to take the quick way down. She leaned forwards, tucked her knees into her chest, somersaulted off the rafter and landed lightly on her feet on the ground.
‘Wow!’ said a voice. ‘Can you teach me to do that?’
Li whirled round. ‘Bina! What are you doing here?’
‘I’ve been demoted. I’m no longer mother, just plain old Bina. Is there anything I can do?’
‘Yeah,’ said Li. ‘Come and help us at the north end – it’s the last bit that needs tiling.’ She steered Bina towards the ladder. ‘Er – we’ll take the normal way up.’
They climbed to the north end of the roof. Paulo and Amber were working there now, fixing the ridge tiles.
‘How’s your mum?’ said Amber. ‘We saw her coming back.’
Bina picked up an armful of tiles. ‘She’s OK. They sent her home. She only had one kidney anyway.’
Paulo stopped hammering. ‘She only had one kidney?’
‘The other one was stolen.’
Her words stopped all activity: Paulo and Amber, their hammers poised to strike; Alex, bringing more nails; Li, making her way along the ridge; even Hex at the far side, collecting more tiles.
‘Someone stole her kidney?’ said Alex.
Bina nodded slowly. ‘Years ago, she was ill. She had bad stomach pains and went to hospital. I was small at the time, but I remember she was in a lot of pain, before and after. There was this clinic funded by a charity, so we didn’t have to pay. They said she had a gallstone and they had to operate. But now the doctors say her kidney was taken out as well.’
Alex was disbelieving. ‘Somebody removed her kidney and she never knew?’
Bina shook her head. ‘Until now. She went for the tests – all those blood tests Hex told us about. She matched and everything. So the doctors examined her and that’s when they saw her scar. It goes all the way round from her back to her front, like this . . .’ Bina drew a line with her index finger.
Hex and Li had come closer so they could hear. When Bina drew the scar for them, they winced. It went from the middle of her back, around the bottom of her ribcage and almost to her breast bone. They remembered what Hex had said about how the surgeons removed a rib. How painful that must be they could only imagine.
Bina wiped something away from her eye and Paulo realized she was crying. He put an arm around her. Bina sat quietly for a moment. When she next spoke her voice was quiet and angry. ‘Mum was sick for months after that. She couldn’t walk properly for two weeks. She couldn’t lift anything. I had to fetch all the water – it was before we had the standpipe. She had to have painkillers for such a long time. We thought it was because of the stone. But it was because someone stole her kidney.’
Some movement do
wn in the street below caught Amber’s attention. A yellow vehicle, splattered with mud, was bumping over the ruts in the unmade road. ‘Hey – do you often get taxis coming out this far?’
They all looked at the vehicle.
‘It might be passing through,’ said Hex.
But it didn’t. Once it reached the standpipe, the driver braked and cut the engine. A figure got out of the back. He was overweight; that was the first thing they noticed.
‘He obviously doesn’t work in the fields all day,’ said Amber. After a week of being among people who were lean from hard work, someone who obviously ate a lot more than he needed to fuel his body was very noticeable.
Bina had gone pale. ‘That’s the kidney man. What’s he doing back here?’
7
TRILOK
Trilok leaned on the taxi to get his bearings. There was the standpipe, the telephone box; nearby the half-built school. As he remembered, the house he wanted was the second one, with the veranda that had the pink fabric in the doorway. Mootama’s house. The fabric billowed as though somebody was beating it; little clouds of dust puffed up from underneath it. Somebody inside was sweeping the floor. Good. She was at home.
He had to think how he would handle the situation. He wasn’t expected. He wondered what sort of reception he’d get. He didn’t often turn up uninvited. Usually people asked him to come to them. They’d say: Trilok, find me a kidney. Trilok, sell my kidney.
It was a real blow to find that Mootama had already lost a kidney. She was a perfect match for old Gopal. And Gopal was difficult because he’d rejected a kidney before. To find that this woman was such good material was a blessing indeed. And then it had all gone wrong.
As Trilok stood there collecting his thoughts, his phone rang. He took it out of his shirt pocket and glanced at the screen. Gopal again. Without even answering it, he could hear the man’s rasping voice, knew what he was going to say: Have you gone back to that woman yet? I can’t hang on for ever while you start searching again. That woman matches me. End of story. You’ve found your donor. Do whatever you have to, but I want her. Trilok had heard those same words many times in the short time since the doctors had examined Mootama and sent her packing.